Online video game "Star Wars: The Old Republic" has seen about a 25% drop in subscribers, according to its publisher Electronic Arts (EA).

The firm revealed that the title had 1.3 million active subscribers at the end of April, compared to "a little over" 1.7 million in February.

The US-based company said that the figure was "consistent" with its original projections.

However, EA's shares fell as much as 10% in after hours trading.

The Star Wars MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) is EA's biggest investment to date.

The drop-off in subscribers is despite EA raising the amount it is spending on marketing and the launch of the game in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore at the start of March.

A fall in the number of subscribers had been expected but the size of the decline surprised some analysts.

Budding Jedi masters and Sith lords now have somewhere else to hone their lightsaber skills.

Star Wars: The Old Republic launched on 20 December and lets gamers play as characters from the iconic SF series.

Reputed to have cost more than $130m (